JosephH

I'm guessing the Panama Canal Zone and that he's still bent about handing it over.

There have already been a few locally. And what the hell, first-person 'leaderview' camerawork would probably be perfect for the job. [ Edit: I feel compelled to note the abject terror permeating everyone's use of the term 'vertical' in this thread. It [self-]reinforces the sad resilence of this myth. It's like, "but oh my god, I want a 'real' belay on vertical rock...!". A sad mass hysteria entrenched so deep it's probably pointless even attempting to discuss anything within a grenade's distance of reality on the topic at this point. How could I have missed the world is flat? C'est la vie...]

If anyone is ever down at Beacon I'd be happy to demo it. Or I suppose if I knew someone with a video camera I record it and slap it up somewhere; might have to think about that with regard to both hip belays and stancing.

Bill, hey if it were up to me I'd remove them entirely. As it is 10' lower would be infinitely better in every way. It's a ridiculous place to belay p2 from. 10' lower they would neither be in the way or in any danger of cutting the rope from what I can tell. Would like to hear more about how you think that scenario might play out. Where they are now is perfect for Lost Warriors but are absolutely worthless for Young Warriors.

I believe the quote you're looking for is 'fruit doesn't rot far from the tree'...

I didn't. I know the route so rapped to the end of the rope and downclimbed which is what you have to do with a 60. No 60 I have owned has ever come close to reaching the ground.

Your rope was longer than a 60 then, no 60 of mine out of six ropes has ever made it near the ground.

Or like the activist 'states rights' conservatives on the Supreme Court have just overruled the will of the people of the state of Florida...

Anyone can get up any number of mountains around the world so long as nothing goes wrong.

A+

Maybe they bailed and it was a vain attempt to actually reach the ground with a 60.

Might be, but as a head-banging or classical savant, he's probably one of the only guys here who can reel that shit off note-for-note in a stumbling, hungover coma.

Congrats on surviving jumping on a motorcycle and heading South - that shows pluck, courage, and a sense of adventure. But the mountains are filled with dead strong-minded people. Climbing knowledge and accomplishments are the sort of thing you work on earning a climb at a time increasing in difficulty as you progress. Otherwise, as another inspired high altitude tourist, you'll just be endangering whoever is foolish enough to take you with them on any such climb. There are simply no shortcuts to this sort of endeavor and, like getting to Buenos Aires, it's about the journey - not the destination. And hell, you're young, I'd say take your time and enjoy the ride, there's no need to rush a thing like this.

Well, it certainly explains why 'those in Appalachia' allow their mountain tops and watersheds to be destroyed to benefit wealthy republicans living outside of Appalachia. Don Blankenship has been buying politicians and judges in WV for years. He's old school. P.S. And isn't it amazing that "that only God can change the earth's temperature", but a mere Don Blankenship can destroy entire mountains.

After eight years in a coma.

And maybe you should work on not being so suddenly sensitive.

What a testimony to genius - waves of Rovian vibrations are still permeating through the victimal white males of America (VWMoA) like a tuning fork set for stupid. Thank god they leave a small, red mark in the middle of the forehead so the perpetually gullible are easily identifiable. Karl was the absolute master of stupid human herding.

What a brouhaha. Government intruding into your lives? You're retarded if you're worried about this event. You want to worry about government in your lives - welcome to BushWorld motherfuckers...

Genspires, my mistake, I thought you were confusing 'tying' and 'locking' off - clearly you're not. Across the front of the body (waist) is a gently curved continuation of the rope path and you don't have much of anything to brace your hand against. Diving between your legs provides another bend and allows you to brace your hand against the inside of your thigh. Across the front would be ok if your intent was going to be to eventually tie-off, otherwise my opinion is you're better off between your legs with your hand / wrist braced against the brakehand-side leg. This bracing also comes into play in any case where you have to lower someone any distance as you want the very fine control over the lowering speed that helps provide.

In thirty five years of climbing I've never had the slightest inclination to belay two climbers simultaneously. I don't particularly like climbing in threesomes and when I do it's one at a time. as for tying off to go hands free, it couldn't be simpler, just take the brake hand side of the rope and do a wrap around the side of the rope to the climber. Takes seconds and you're hands-free. Again, you do the exact same unsubstantiated "less than vertical" innuendo when nothing could be further from the truth - hip belaying done right is a completely sound and solid method of belaying on vertical rock of any size to hold falls of any length. Last time I checked rotues like Blownout at Beacon and Yellow Spur in Eldo qualified as vertical. You're right - and belaying two people is certainly one of them.

I like the munter for a variety of uses, just not belaying or rapping, both of which tend to destroy a rope pretty damn quick when done with any frequency. It was fine on goldline, sucks on sheathed ropes. If you were paying attention to the details, the actual complete quote from my first post in the thread was: Both work equally well standing or sitting.

Yes, a) that I can evaluate the merits of any climbing area relative to my interests in climbing in only a few hours, and b) that I can evaluate the merits of other climbers on this board based on a few comments in the "Newbies" forum, and decide they're incompetent at hip belaying. Big difference.

I love the fact that [(victimal) white male] indignation is the last trick in the bottom of the republican bag. But then again, Rove proved that most of the time, it's the only one you need. Nothing plays together quite so well as ignorance and indignation.

Except anyone who criticizes hip belays appears to be incompetent by definition in your book. You're willing to call out genepires despite not knowing anything about what he represents as a climber, and the same goes for others on this thread... Hip belays have their uses, but they have their limitations... Again, which one of you on this thread has ever spent any significant amount of time or effort figuring out how a hip belay would have to be done to competently belay vertical rock? How many of you have used a hip belay on a vertical, multipitch rock climb? Any of you? I can tell from the comments on this thread that folks commenting negatively on hip belaying don't have the requisite experience or knowledge to make those claims. Even your comment of "but they have there limitations" smacks of it. How about elaborating on exactly what those limitations are if that's what you think? What I'm attempting to get across here is there is a wholly mistaken and now deeply entrenched mythology and urban legend around the topic that has no basis in fact.

Yeah, boring. I was at a party of old Valley guys back in March down in Jtree, my first visit there because I'd always avoided it and Vedauwoo like the plague. After one day climbing there I couldn't bail for Red Rocks fast enough - the basic movement was just that, intolerably boring.